History

MAPS Milestone

MAPS was founded in Malaysia on 16 January 2001 by Dato' Lawrence Chan, CSP, who is a professional member of National Speakers Association (NSA), USA since 1983. He received the support and blessings from Cavett Robert, founder of NSA, John Hammond, Somers White and Naomi Rhode to form an association of professional speakers in Malaysia. Dato' Lawrence wanted to form a national association to promote and upgrade professionalism in the speaking business for those in various professions.

A platform where members can improve the speaking skills, exchange ideas, share experiences, build their professional speaking business and network with the peers locally and internationally. He felt that public speaking in Malaysia faced numerous challenges to be recognized as a profession. MAPS members make their living, entirely or partially, from professional speaking as trainers, facilitators, coaches, consultants, facilitators, authors, adult educators, motivators and keynoters.

MAPS strives to help its members grow their speaking business by developing eight professional competencies which are enhanced through marketing & promotion, collaboration with learning partnerships, connection to international linkages and advancement of speaking professionals through participation in the Global Speakers Federation (GSF). MAPS has been a member of GSF since 2006 and its members have had the opportunity to participate in the GSF events such as the Global Speakers Summit.

MAPS is spearheaded by various significant Executive Committee (ExCo) members. Together with the past presidents, they had served MAPS. to make it a better association today. Although the ExCo list is too big to mention, we list the past president here. Almost all of them served in the ExCo in various capacities before they became a president. Interestingly, MAPS Presidents are not directly elected to this post. each president is elected as a President-elect (starting in the year 2004) servers a two year term as the Deputy President before assuming automatically the position of President, Another interesting fact, is that the retiring president servers in the ExCo for another two year term as the Immediate Past President. What it means is that a president's committment to MAPS is a minimum of four continous years of service in the ExCo!

MAPS' historical list of past presidents:

2001: Founder President & Advisor: Dato' Lawrence Chan Kum Peng, CSP

2002: Mr Gerald Green

2003: Dr Yew K K

2004 - 2005: Mr PM Low

2006 - 2007: Dato' Dr Sheikh Omar

2008: Mr Yogathevan

2010 - 2011: Mr Jonathan Low, CSP

2012 - 2013: Mr Raymond Phoon

2014 - 2015: Mr.Jegatheeswaran Manoharan

2016: Mr Johann Paul Gregory

About MAPS

MAPS is a professional association for speakers who are committed to building a better future for the professional speaking business in Malaysia and even globally.Read More..